Day 259 Olympic Village and Park

Hank, Kirsten and I headed out on a glorious Saturday morning to Olympic Park.

It was so cool to be walking along the very site
of the 2008 Olympic Games....we took lots
of photos :))))

Even the lights in the village looked like the
National Stadium- aka the 'Bird's Nest'.

What was once housing is now
home to IBM.  I love the building
design; the top is meant to look
like the Olympic torch!

The sight of the Olympic Tower is now
a huge shopping plaza.

Once we got oriented to our surroundings,
we decided to make good use of our
'unlimited access' passes :)  Notice the cool
'dragon' lake that runs through the village.
They thought of everything!  I will say, China
does her very best to put on her best face for
the world to see- they spared no expense.

Being inside the Bird's Nest?!  OMG- it was really awesome :)))
All we needed was a few beers, some hot dogs, nachos, and a Coke for me!

For a moment, I was transported back to my living room
in the log cabin, and I remembered being glued to the TV
watching all of the Olympic events that year. Truth be told,
I do that every Olympics year- I am an Olympics junkie.

Beijing is currently a candidate city in the bid for 2022 :)

There were displays all along the concourse of props that were used in the
opening and closing ceremonies- like these traditional Chinese instruments.

As we milled about,  we naturally could not resist riding up
the Love elevator...all the way to the top!

We Americans took our 'unlimited access passes'
a little too seriously.  We found ourselves up in
the Royal Balcony (by mistake?!) and were
quickly escorted out- we were not in the proper
footwear to be milling about the Royal Balcony.
We were escorted back down, and were told
to put on our booties and 'wait one moment please'.

The doors to the Royal Balcony were made of glazed eggshells.
I was glad to see them put the egg shells to good use- 1.4
billion people eat their weight in eggs here!

Ok, this is looking like a room for Royalty.

Hui Fang He Chang, a traditional Chinese painting.

First of all, the tour we were asked to join was all
in Mandarin, of which we caught about every 347th
word.  Second of all, when the guide started leading
the group into the Royal bathroom, we decided we
had enough.  We shucked our booties, and decided
to return to 'The Normal Tourist Areas'.

There were beautiful sculptures all over the grounds and park.

This sculpture was a tribute to Cuju, and ancient form of
Chinese football, similar to present day soccer.

Just a bit of silliness :)

Behind the Bird's Nest was the
Olympic torch! You can appreciate
how big it is when you see how
small the van looks below it.

 

We spent quite a bit of time walking along the wall,
reminiscing about the different events and their winners.

How many times do you count Michael
Phelps' name here?!

USA knows their basketball- take THAT!!!!

The 2008 Paralympic Games were also held in Beijing,
and their athlete's names were on the wall.  I wonder if
Jerome Singleton got the gold, and if Oscar Pistorius had
to relinquish it after his murder conviction? Maybe
he's using it to pay for attorney's fee for an appeal :(

As we crossed the plaza to 'the Cube', I couldn't help
but gravitate toward the sailboat sculpture :)

The plexiglass exterior is gorgeous at night
when it is glowing with blue lights.

 

The APEC summit in November of this past year must have
held some special gatherings at the Cube.  There was a display
of the traditional dress of the 21 nations represented in the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

The pool where Michael Phelps' magic happened :)

There's now a huge water park inside the Cube
that is open to the public.

It looks like so much fun!

 

Like, maybe a place to celebrate my birthday
that's coming up?!  hint! hint!  ;)

After our visit to the Cube, we relinquished our
passes to the Olympic village, and headed north
along the Dragon Lake to the Olympic Park.

The water irises were blooming...

...as were the water lillies, and for a moment
I had a pang of homesickness for the log cabin in
the woods with my koi pond, flowers, and waterfall.

This little cutie and her daddy were catching tadpoles.

Across Dragon Lake is the Chinese Museum of Science and
Technology and Observatory. There's another place I would like
to visit.  I can't imagine that it could be better than Chicago :)

 

Looking back south to the Olympic village.

 

We had been staring at these towers all day as
we made our way north.  We had hoped to go
up them for some views of the city on such a
clean air day.  Sadly, they were closed, but
there was a subway station right at the base of
them, so we decided to call it a day.  

We attempted to go see Baitasi, the Temple of
the White Pagoda, since we were not far from it.
It was built in 1096 during the Liao dynasty. It
was then restored in 1271 to a Tibetan style.

It was late in the day, so the grounds were closed.
We couldn't get a good shot of the white dagoba,
anyhow, as it is covered for restoration.

Only one thing left to do after walking 21km... order
some margaritas and eat Mexican food! YUM :)))
Here's to ya'!

 G'nite, y'all, this girlie is pooped!